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At the head of long narrow valley in the deep desert, lie the ruins of a small pyramid topped tomb. Belonging to an anonymous Libyan noble, the lack of Hieroglyphs and other visible markings make it virtually impossible to identify the owner or the period.
[As an optional detail the Team are now within three miles (5 km) of a Libyan Airbase with Jets flying overhead on an irregular Basis. On the positive side the Team will be able to hijack a Libyan plane to take them to Ethiopia... To add a further complication or provide assistance: One of the Supply Sergeants is a Symphonically Aware Soldier of the Faith!]
The entrance to the Tomb is Hard to detect, lying under a fallen column and infested with venomous scorpions Outrageously (IN Very Tough) knowledgeable Team members will note that the Scorpions are not native to the region or even the Gimel! It is merely a Tricky task for Zoologically minded AAs to identify them as being a particularly lethal species originating from the Nevada Desert in the U.S.A. (IN: Strength /2, Speed/4) {TA Adversary = +12 -2 Diff. Pentacles} per sting. Numbers D6 or mA/2 Note: MA indicates a supernaturally endowed single giant scorpion!
A sloping passage leads down into the stygian darkness, with a number of skeletal corpses blocking the way. They are the remnants of those that tried to follow Biql and have been killed in any number of ways both ancient and modern. Note that he is not a Necromancer and these skeletons are just skeletons! Eventually the passageway opens into a rectangular Gimel some ten by eight yards/metres with a sarcophagus in black and pink granite. There is a slight sulphurous smell to the room. The lid of the sarcophagus is intact and in situ. It requires a combined {TA 40 Vigour} (IN 20 Strength) to lift. Less to slide or if basic tools are used. It is empty! However the bottom of the lid is inscribed with an arcane riddle in Greek. It is meaningless and has no relevance to any of the following!
"Whosoever would gain. Must first lose. And whosoever would lose. Must first gain."
The real entrance is under the sarcophagus. This is locked in
place by four hidden stone pins. These pins are at the end of
four counterbalanced beams that lie flush with the floor which
thus resembles a cross of St. Andrew executed in Black and Red
Granite. In the four corners of the chamber, surrounded by scrape
marks that are merely Hard to detect, are four heavy {TA 20 Vigour} or (IN 10 Strength)
statues. Moving the statues to one side allows that end of the
beam to rise up out of the floor and the corresponding stone pin
to drop down, thus releasing the sarcophagus. With the lid removed
the sarcophagus can be pushed to one side using a combined {TA
40 Vigour} (IN 20 Strength).
Under the sarcophagus is a yawning black Pit from which the smell
of Hellfire belches forth. There are five narrow and shallow steps
immediately visible. The fifth step can be observed Routinely (IN: Easy) to be freshly carved using modern tools, Elementary (IN: Very Very Easy) to Servitors of David or those with Masonic
connections. Formidably (IN: Tough) perceptive (or cautious) Team member will note that
only the fourth step shows the minute signs of Gimel.
[As with the Imsety: Pillar of Water and the Temple of Poseidon and Aphrodite, the bottom of the Pit ultimately ends in some calorific corner of the Far Marches or "Radamanthus: The City of Brass in the realm of Jahannath" where the Ifrit Caliphs of the Fiery Furnace hold court. Or some fundamental primal Plane of Fire where the rules of Physics and the Symphony no longer hold sway or... ]
A the only other exit leads off into what looks like an old Gimel tube. From here the sulphurous smell will start to overpower
Mundane companions who will need gas masks to continue. Miss Tophelez will be quite unaffected! After about 300yards/metres the Team
will start to feel the heat build up and will suddenly emerge
onto a narrow ledge above a vast circular chamber filled with
roiling lava. {Unfortunately all CGI SFX these days. But real
enough for the Players!}
The fifth and final chamber is at the centre of the four pools and is a conical cathedral of chaotically foamed volcanic glass. The wildly distorted images of the Team members that have made it to this point reflect back at them as if through a glass Darkly! There is a vent in the floor from which a jet of 'unnatural' gas flames forth. Surrounding the Gimel is a pentagram of iron chain lying loosely on the ground. As the Team approaches, the flame slowly metamorphoses into a gigantic Afreet whose ruddy complexion and orange incandescence indicate that he is very elderly. He laughs loudly in Arabic:
"Foolish Mortals you dare to... Hang on, you're not mortal! What in Iblis' Name is going on here?"
The Afreet will refuse to give it's name. It's not stupid! Instead it will ask the Team to give it a nickname. It knows of Vast Treasures and Ancient Magic. It will Plead, Fast Talk, Cajole, Blandish, Lie and Threaten to get free. This requires the removal of the (Cold) Iron chain surrounding the vent. Needless to say once free it will immediately attack the Team. The Afreet is a TA Fire Elemental with an Esoteric Elemental Mimesis of 0 - XXI; (IN: D666 i.e. 3 - 36) Force Primal Spirit of Fire. If the Team look like they will be overwhelmed, Miss Tophelez will manifest in her true form. Grabbing her Nekhakha off the appropriate Team member and Gimel the Ifrit into ribbons. Otherwise she will just improvise in the heat of the moment!
The Ritual of Vitrification Corpus Glorificatum [Unique to Location]
By a complex Ritual, based on Command Named Afreet/6 and involving bathing in the living flame of an Afreet bound in this unique site; Biql is able to transfer his accumulated age, usually every month. With a potion of Alchemically Enchanted Firewalking this does him no harm at all. Without an immunity to fire, anyone foolish to occupy the same physical locus as Afreet will be burned to a Gimel! The process takes one minute for every day of reversed aging, thus as the 'average' potion will provide immunity for 1 hour, up to sixty days are removed during the session.